Month: December 2009

1. A luggable loo
2. An LED headlamp
3. A large stock pot for hot water
4. a basin
5. cordless tools

1. Buy a four wheel drive vehicle
2. Buy an ATV
3. Get a bunch of animals
4. Get satellite TV
5. Get some guns

This is how I run my laptop directly off my DC battery power. I connect a 12 volt cord to a battery. For my solar system I have gel batteries but when I go up to my other cabin I bring a deep cell battery. Red clamp on positive/ black clamp on negative.

Then I plug my DC power adapter for my computer into the socket.

There is a different DC power adapter for every laptop.

If you don’t have a DC power adapter for your computer you can plug a little inverter into the socket and it will run your AC laptop off of DC. They have an annoying little fan that eventually stops working so I don’t like using them.

My generator is a Honda EU2000i. 

There are many cheaper ones out there but they aren’t small, quiet, or fuel efficient.  When I see how much gas people with the cheap generators use, I’m so thankful I bought this one. It think it’s supposed to run up to 20 hours on one gallon of gas.

I’ve had it for  5 years.  I use it to charge my batteries on my solar system when the sun doesn’t shine.

For a while now, when it’s cold, it has been starting and then as soon as I go inside it dies.  I have to start it like four times before it stays running.

I always add stabilizer to my fuel because my fuel sits for so long.

Last year I  tried adding some Heat to it.  That improved things a little but not much.

This year I bought some octane booster and added it to the fuel.    I don’t remember what kind but I think it said “barely legal!” on the bottle.     The generator runs perfect now. Problem solved.

Last night I was sitting in my darkening cabin thinking how lucky I am live the way I do.  It’s hard to explain but just sitting there watching it get dark is the best feeling.

That’s the great thing about cabin life, it doesn’t cut you off and protect you from the world like a house.   It more enhances life than cut you off from it.

When it’s dark, you know it’s dark.  When it’s cold outside, you know it’s cold.

If you want heat, you go chop wood.  If you want water, you need to melt some snow.

If the cabin burns down, you need to figure out a new shelter.    But that’s all it is—shelter.

Some people think my life is harder than for people who live in a house.   I can tell you, from my house sitting experiences, that I have far more time and far less chores to do than a house dweller.

It takes me like 40 seconds to clear the snow off my porch.

When I house sat for my sister, I had a long walk to shovel, many decks to shovel, and a long driveway to plow.

My toilet is a bucket.   I have two of them.   Once a week I dump them under a big pine tree, rinse them out with my saved gray water, and rake some pine needles over the top. It takes 10 minutes a week at the most.   They work flawlessly, don’t use water, and they make top soil.

At my sisters, not one of her three toilets worked flawlessly.   A half of day was spent cleaning up after one of them overflowed.

Though my cabin is cold in the mornings, some night it’s probably close to 80 degrees.   To be that warm when it’s cold outside feels delicious.

I make a nest on the floor with blankets and pillows and in the dark cabin, stretch out in front of the wood stove and the propane heater, drink tea,  look out at the stars, and think, “There is no where I would rather be.”

At my sisters house she has inlay hot water coils that heat the floor of her large house.   You set it and the house  stays that same temperature all the time.  So it’s too hot when you’re sleeping and too cold when you’re awake.

The one thing I thought that her 3500 sq ft. house would have over my 200 sq. ft. cabin was space.   In my cabin, I carefully lay myself out to do some yoga postures so I have enough room.

The shocker was that because she had filled all her space with stuff, I had the same problem at her house as in my cabin.  She had no more room to stretch out and do yoga as I did.

If I need a new roof—500 dollars.  If she needs a new roof—10,000 dollars.

I can wash all my windows, inside and out in under an hour.  She needs scaffolding to wash her windows.

My shelter serves me; she serves her’s.

I could go on and on but my point is cabin life is easier, more comfortable, more beautiful, and much more sustainable than big house living.

I have always liked getting rid of stuff.  Even when I was really little, when my parents would yell at me to clean up my room, I would grab a Good Will bag and throw all my stuff into it.

When I had a house it was full of stuff.  It made me tired.   So, I made a rule.  Everyday I had to get rid of at least 10 things.   I did that for months.   Everything I got rid of increased my energy.

Then one day I couldn’t think of anything else to get rid of.   I started feeling so tired.   I told my son and he posted on his geek board that I had beer making supplies to give away for free.  Within hours there were a couple of geeks taking away my brewery and my energy surged.

After my big purge, I was robbed and then I had even less stuff.

Then I sold my house and  I had to get rid of almost everything.   There was no room for sentimentality.

It was so freeing to dump all the pictures of my past into the garbage.  I don’t need pictures; I lived my life; I was there.

Now, I have less stuff but I still try to  get rid of one thing a day.

It’s a good goal to set: by the end of everyday— less stuff.

What’s an uncluttered life worth.   Certainly more than any of the clutter is worth.